I haven’t had a houseplant in 5.5 years and was just gifted a baby snake plant (mother in law’s tongue). it is ridiculously important to me that I do my best caring for it.
the woman who gave it to me had planted it in some well-draining medium (cactus soil or something) in a red solo cup and she showed me it’s tiny roots.
I poked holes in the bottom of the solo cup, then put it inside another container with a bit of gravel under the cup. It’s in a window with indirect light.
I want to avoid overwatering, since it’s a succulent, but how often then? I also want to avoid digging up the roots again to check on them which is my irrational urge.
yes, I know I could have googled this questions and in fact I did, but now I’m asking you. (I also need a distraction from election coverage, frankly)
From my experience, over-watering it the biggest challenge to growing them. A quick google search said water every 2-8 weeks, which really isn’t much help. The key is to check the substrate (dirt or sand) they are in and see when it is dry down 2 inches or more. Then you know it’s time to water. That’s the best advise I can give you. When in doubt, wait a week.
By those standards, we’re overwatering our gold-band sansevieria, but it isn’t complaining. In fact, it’s shooted many new leaf clusters and even blossomed a couple of times.
But the soil is well-drained and it doesn’t get heavily watered at any given time (once per week, typically). So it’s not getting its roots drowned.
Take heart: Snake plants are hard to kill, and they thrive on being potbound. I have three, and just recently repotted one which had been tight in its pot for years. it’s already poking up new shoots, even though the new pot isn’t much wider, just deeper with some fresh soil. I took another skinny three from small pots and repotted them into one big pot and they’re also sending up new shoots.
Heck, while I was repotting the striped plant into its new pot I accidentally snapped off a shoot that had come out sideways and then gone up about a foot and a half. The shoot blade still had its curved bottom so I just tucked it into the trio’s pot behind them, just nestling the horizontal part into the top of the dirt, and it already seems to be trying to root.
the fact that they always come up in “easiest houseplants to grow” or “houseplants that thrive in low light” lists is why I finally allowed someone to give me one. I live in a one room apartment with only one window.
it’s nice to have another living thing to care for (worry about).
The soil should be completely dry before watering. ~weekly is good when it’s prime growing season. Shorter days and slower growth in late fall through early sping probably means every 2-3 weeks unless you are giving it artifical light that mimics outdoor day length and intensity. The plant has slowed down for the winter so much it can go a long time on just stored water over the winter.
Ha! When I was a kid, I recall my mom had one that lived in an interior hallway! What scraps of light it got I just don’t know, but it lived on and on and on…
I water mine random amounts when I happen to think of it. They’ve thrived for decades with me.
ETA: Oh, and you’re not supposed to repot them when they’re headed into winter dormancy, but I just did the striped one a couple of weeks ago and it’s doing fine. Hard to kill!
If you are keeping it outdoors in an area that freezes and in a pot, I found out an interesting fact. Succulents in a pot will die during a freeze but those planted in the ground will not. I don’t know why.
Just in case the OP is wondering, IMO that would be gross overkill for a sansevieria. Just avoid watering it too often. Low light, minimal water - they can be pretty hard to kill. Just don’t drown it.
Make sure the soil is good and dry before watering it. And when you water it, no need to soak it. If the plant is flagging, you can probably just cut off one of the tips and stick it in the dirt to propagate.
Probably because a plant in a pot is vulnerable to having its roots freeze because the rootball is exposed all the way around to freezing air, whereas in earth that’s much less likely.
It’s pretty much true of any perennial plant: they’ll survive the tops freezing but not the roots.
The soil in a pot, being a relatively tiny amount of soil raised up into the air, will get much closer to the outdoor air temperature than will everything but the very skim surface of the ground; as the ground is surrounded by and insulated by all the rest of the ground.
I do have a few varieties of groundcover sedum in long planters on my deck rails, and they’ve survived a Massachusetts winter for multiple years. But not every variety I’ve planted has made it. I used to take the planters off the rails and tuck them next to the house, on the ground, but these days I don’t even bother.
Snake plants have lower water needs but shouldn’t be treated like desert cacti.
I grow them in the same soilless medium used for other houseplants, letting the soil to get almost completely dry between waterings and allowing roots to get fairly crowded in the pot before repotting.
They prefer bright light and will appreciate sun, especially on summer vacations outdoors when they receive available rainfall. They have a reputation as low light survivors but flourish with ample light.
With most succulents, you can tell when they need water by squeezing the leaves between your thumb and forefinger. When the leave starts giving, time to water. Your MILT doesnt have quite the plumpness of an aloe or “ficus” but it will keep you from overwatering if you do this.
